FINNISH LITERATURE. To Elias Lonnrot of Helsingfors belongs the merit of having rescued from utter oblivion some of the numerous sagas and songs which had for ages been recited by the Finnish runolainen, or singers, to the sound of the kantela, or harp, and thus transmitted from one generation to another. Although his researches were limited to the district of Karelia, in the government of Kupio, he obtained numerous songs and proverbs, and a complete epos, consisting of 32 parts, each of which contained from 200 to 700 verses. This singular monument of the earlier culture of the people was published by him in 1835, under the title of Kalewala (the ancient name of Finland), but it met with little notice till the academy of Dorpat made it the subject of discussion at their meetings in 1840. This publicity soon attracted the attention of foreign philolo gists, and led to its translation into Russian, Swedish, and German. The learned Fin nish scholar, Carsten, the Grimms, and Brockhaus, agree in regarding the Kalewala as a pure epic, and characterize it as a composition possessing a thoroughly oriental appre ciation of nature, an almost unparalleled wealth of images and tropes, great flexibility of rhythm, and a copiousness of synonyms not to be met with in any other northern tongue. There is less unanimity in regard to the character of the plot, for while one critic believes that the incidents refer to definite historical epochs, another regards them as purely allegorical.- But whatever discrepancy of opinion there may be in this respect, the Kalewala is admitted by all who are entitled to form a judgment of its merits, to be one of the most curious monuments of the kind possessed by any European people. The date of its composition must be referred to a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity amongst the Finns in the 14th c., while there is even strong internal evi
dence, from an identity of the names and traditions of the Kalewala with many still current in Esthonia, that the poems very probably belong to an epoch anterior to the immigrations of the Karelians into the districts which they now occupy. The publica tion of the Kalewala has given. a powerful impetus to the study of the Finnish language, which the Russian government effectively sustains by encouraging the cultivation and use of their native tongue by the Finlanders.. The upper classes still cling to the use of Swedish, but the peasantry and small landed proprietors welcome with avidity every addition to the limited stock of their printed literature. Finnish weekly papers circulate freely among them, and political questions are discussed with an enthusiasm which is never met with among similar classes in Scandinavia or Russia proper, but which affords additional proof of the diversity of character which distinguishes the Finn from either of the neighboring nations with which he has been successively incorporated.
The prose literature of Finland is almbst exclusively devoted to religious and moral subjects. The Bible was translated into Finnish in 1642, but a part of the Old Testa ment had been translated a century earlier. Several Finnish poets have acquired a reputation of late years, but their works breathe the same melancholy tone which so strongly characterizes the more ancient poems of Finland. Lonnrot has made a collec tion of about 7,000 proverbs (Suomen kansan Sanalskuja, 1842), and about 2,000 charades (Suom. kans. arwoituskia, 1851). See Erman's Arehia f. d. Kunde D. Russland. Teng drain i Fosterlandskt Alb. (Helsingf.).